SPRING PRACTICE PERIOD: Stories from the Lotus Sutra

Dogen-Zenji so cherished the Lotus Sutra that he actually carved a selection of it into his door. This, the core text of not only Zen but the whole of Mahayana Buddhism, has never lost its appeal among practitioners of the Way. Join us for our SPRING PRACTICE PERIOD: Stories From the Lotus Sutra led by Sensei Joshin Byrnes, Sensei Genzan Quennell

An Ethics of Care (Part 2 of 15)

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Episode Description: Stephen Batchelor begins the morning talk by quoting Shantideva’s description of Bodhicitta as “a blind person finding a jewel in a heap of garbage.” The unlikely jewel in this analogy is love for all the suffering creatures of the world. Shantideva says, “I long to be free of suffering, yet I run into it’s arms as though it were my dearest friend.” This conflict is at the core of what it means to be human, Stephen says; in the West, it appears in the writings of by St. Paul, Aristotle, and Montaigne. Through our Dharma practice, we have the opportunity to transform our worries and anxieties into objects of awareness, rather than letting them “run the show” of our experience. Stephen ends his talk by inviting us to “ask ourselves what and who we care for.”

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STEPHEN BATCHELOR is a contemporary Buddhist teacher and writer, best known for his secular or agnostic approach to Buddhism. Stephen considers Buddhism to be a constantly evolving culture of awakening rather than a religious system based on immutable dogmas and beliefs. In particular, he regards the doctrines of karma and rebirth to be features of ancient Indian civilisation and not intrinsic to what the Buddha taught. Buddhism has survived for the past 2,500 years because of its capacity to reinvent itself in accord with the needs of the different Asian societies with which it has creatively interacted throughout its history. As Buddhism encounters modernity, it enters a vital new phase of its development. Through his writings, translations and teaching, Stephen engages in a critical exploration of Buddhism's role in the modern world, which has earned him both condemnation as a heretic and praise as a reformer.